Acquittal of Jayalalitha shows the complexity of rooting out corruption: Time for Direct Election of Chief Minister

Monday, May 11th, 2015 @ 9:54PM

When Legislative and Executives failed, the common man pins his hope on the last branch of the State – Judiciary. When Corruption became wide and prevalent in India, Judiciary did a wonderful job of keeping the corrupt legislators away and even made sure that they can’t contest in elections for the next 6 years.

After Lalu & Chauthala were sent to Jail, what happened on Sept 27 was historical. Jayalalitha, the then CM of Tamilnadu was convicted and sentenced for 4 years. She was even removed from the post of Chief Minister. Many people throughout India saw this Judgement as a path-breaking one and the respect for Judiciary increased manyfold. However the convicts appealed to High court and in the verdict today Jayalalitha was acquitted.

Expressing dismay over this verdict, Loksatta founder Dr.JP said “Acquittal of Ms.Jayalalitha in the disproportionate assets case & public rejoicing show the complexity of rooting out corruption and the personalized, feudal politics. Power for private gain & personal aggrandizement is the norm. Far-reaching politics & institutional reform is vital for India’s future.”

Loksatta Party’s Tamil Nadu President Palani Kumar said “The sentence suspension of Actor Salman and today’s verdict on Jayalalitha has shaken the trust that a common man has on the Judiciary. There are many more DA cases pending with politicians in Tamilnadu and this verdict will make one think that the Corrupt can walk free with money and power.”

Commenting on this, LSP Spokesperson Jagadheeswaran said, “On one side when we welcome the best and brightest to enter politics, Judgements like these tells us that Corrupt people will not be punished in her entire life. Failure to check the corrupt forces is encouraging the corrupt forces and they continue to loot the public money”

Loksatta is always of the opinion that the Laws that we bring should serve its purpose and that can be attained only by punishments to the wrong-doers. Lokpal can be an efficient law only when the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats are given punishments.

The basic problem lies in people electing Corrupt forces. There are many elected representatives in both Parliament and State Assemblies with many cases pending against them. History has shown as the change in legislators has not brought the change and it is only the change in systems that includes Police, Judicial & Political reforms which includes ‘Direct election of Chief Minister with proper succession & term limits’ that will reform India as a whole. Loksatta will continue to fight for the System changes. We should see this an opportunity to do it.